Modern Politics: The Pity Party

Modern Politics: The Pity Party

I am certain that all of my Democratic Party friends think I fell off the edge into the right-wing abyss several years ago.

And most of my Republican Party friends are polite and sometimes supportive but they don’t invite me to their fund-raisers.

The Libertarians don’t want government to own, run, control or manage anything, probably including streets and sewers. How could I buy into that?

So, where am I to go?

Well, lately there is the Tea Party, which is really a bunch of people looking for a socially-acceptable outlet to be the Really Mad Party. (Didn’t the Mad Hatter serve tea?)

Which, thinking of a mad character, reminds me of my favorite joke:

What’s the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?

One is a flaming Nazi gas bag and the other is merely a dirigible.

So if you can’t be part of the Democratic or the Republican or the Libertarian or the Tea Party, you must be really lonely and alone and lonesome….thus: THE PITY PARTY.

Okay, that’s a silly metaphor. But the serious side of the discussion is that many observers are deploring the loss of civility in public policy debate, increased polarization, and the descent of party politics into domination of all parties by their extreme wings. I wonder how this will play into the gubernatorial race this year; will the Republican candidates try to exploit the anti-Obama, anti-government spending, anti-Pelosi, anti-government sentiment into a firestorm of rhetoric, or will they offer some Wyoming-specific, state-and-local government solutions that are not dependent upon federal government policies? That might be where we see statesmanship.